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“IF our response is to win by force, we cannot hope to reach a peaceful solution. When we inflict our wills at the expense of theirs, we are simply being bullies, and although we might win the battle, we’re eventually … Continue reading
Here is a list I have been compiling from different sources regarding typical readers and read-alouds for fourth grade Waldorf homeschooling. Please do remember that your student should still be reading out loud to you each day and you should be reading out loud to them.
Here are some suggestions for reading; I am sure there are many more not on this list but it is a place to start. These books can contain mature themes, more struggle and of what it means to be the complex human being, so most of them are recommended for those at least age 9 and up, and I would caution if your child just turned 9 and has not yet gone through the nine year change that you may wait to schedule these until the second half of the year. My assumption in making this list is that your child is actually TEN, or close to ten, for fourth grade.
I have written a few back posts about Grade Three, (and will have one on our last Old Testament block coming up), but I wanted to throw out a few things about Grade Three in general for those of you starting to plan. (And other Grade Three mothers, please do chime in with your experiences!)
“One of the most difficult things for a parent to do is to acknowledge a child’s intense expressions of anger – and to validate that anger as real.”
Have you ever struggled with that? Or with helping your child manage what behavior is acceptable when they are angry?
The authors validate in this chapter that as parents we can be very uncomfortable with anger as an emotion coming from our children. And mothers in the audience, we can be even more uncomfortable at times because many women are peacemakers by nature and by conditioning. The authors relate many stories within this chapter where parents recount how they were not allowed to express anger.
Happy Anniversary to my husband!
I cannot believe we are almost in “double decades” of our marriage; that used to seem like a number only old people could attain. Yet, here we are.
It has been such a journey and such an adventure we have undertaken. Who would have thought that any “ordinary life” could be anything but ordinary? Every day is a walk along this road together with amazing vistas and spectacular sunsets.
One thing I know for sure is that our sense of humor and the way we are laid back about things has helped us smooth the roads we ventured forth on. The way we have been able to put ourselves first as a couple together but also have had respect for who we are as individuals has also been a cornerstone as we have grown together over the years has also made the journey light.
It is funny, endearing and yes, scary, when we can have a conversation with no words but I know exactly what you are thinking or when we can pass a glance between us and you know exactly what I am thinking. How did this happen that we know each other so well?
Thank you for teaching me the secrets to a happy marriage as we walk together: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/05/30/secrets-of-a-happy-marriage/
Most of all, thank you for journeying with me. I love you!
Many blessings,
Carrie
I have gotten quite a few comments and emails from parents lately about bedtime being a struggle. I wonder if this is in part due to just the time of year it is now, being light later at night here in the Northern Hemisphere.
Was this chapter hard for anyone else to read? Parts of it were so hard, to see the deep pain (I think the authors call it that at one point) of these mothers with their small children.
And didn’t this chapter just make you mad?
One of the hardest parts of parenting is developing our own will to not waffle back and forth on “following through” in discipline. We really can learn to follow through calmly on what we said we would do when a child does something that is not part of the rules in our family.
To do this, I think one has to have in mind what the rules of the house or family actually are, and also the developmental expectations for that age. Think to yourself: can this child of this age meet the rules of the house or family, and in what way? What is my part in this as the parent, and what is my child’s part? The younger the child is, the more it is up to you to help the child.
The article “Geography In Fourth Grade” by Franklin G Kane (available here: http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/geography.pdf) was a lovely starting point for me to read regarding the inclusion of local geography in the Fourth Grade that I am planning for fall. Mr. Kane writes:
“The child around the ninth year undergoes an important turning-point in his development. As Rudolf Steiner pointed out, the whole approach to teaching must delicately adjust to meet the more conscious, questioning and independent being. For one thing a child of nine or ten now begins to
feel more separate from the environment which until now he accepted as a larger homelike protection. As one of the ways to meet this, Dr. Steiner suggested that in the Fourth Grade a study of the local area should take place. Through observation of the history and geography of the local
environment, a picture develops as to why the industries, occupations, and way of life of his home have evolved to what they are.
Unlike the early study of history that has its origin in the broad, cosmic remembrances of the old fairy tales and myths of long ago, the study of geography starts nearest the child and gradually expands, in the course of years, to take in a study of the whole world.”
I also keeping this scope and sequence of geography for the fourth through eighth grades in mind as I plan: http://www.christopherushomeschool.org/waldorf-homeschool-publishing-and-consulting/curriculum/subjects/geography.html
And, the last thing I am keeping in mind that in a Waldorf Education we start with the child and with the doing. Map-making holds a dear place in Waldorf Education – drawing maps, modeling salt dough maps, etc. This is a wonderful book by David Sobel that could really assist one in planning this block: http://www.amazon.com/Mapmaking-Children-Sense-Education-Elementary/dp/0325000425
To create this block, I used suggestions from both the Christopherus Fourth Grade Syllabus and Marsha Johnson’s free files for Fourth Grade available at her Yahoo!Group. Here is my tentative outline/ideas, and I hope it will be helpful to you as you plan in your own area and state (and note these are loose ideas, not written in a two or three day rhythm or anything!)
Week One –
Start with taking a bird’s eye look (something for a child past the nine year change!) at our schoolroom, my child’s bedroom and our home moving into our neighborhood –draw maps. Take a blindfolded walk around our yard and in the little park in our neighborhood.
Walk outside of our neighborhood down to the main street of our community – make a diaroma of our community’s Main Street
Take a field trip to a historic site where there used to be a working Mill on a river near our house; this is what this land used to do and how people lived here!
Draw major features of our city into our Main Lesson Book along with facts about our city and how our city is part of a county
Over weekend between weeks one and two – hubby or I will rent canoe and take child on major river that runs through our area; on Labor Day we will venture to a canyon in our state
Week Two
Main theme this week is the story of the four elements that shaped our state and the animals and people that settled here; and also geographic terms. Plan to go to high mountain top near our home and look out over our region at what we can see and identify; visit a park area near our major river that child went canoeing on and build and play in the mud and sand to create land like our four elements story
A look at the special element of water in our state and all the waterways, where they begin and end and create a salt dough relief map of our state
Talk about the barrier islands of our state in story form of course and add to our salt dough map; add beeswax animals to our map – talk about our state animals
Draw a map of our state freehand with the five geographic regions of our state (not sure if this will be here or at the end of this block)
Over weekend between weeks two and three, visit local Native American Mounds
Week Three
Tell story of the Mound Builders, build a mound ourselves in sandbox and then in clay or salt dough
Tell story of the Native Americans in our area who conquered the Mound Builders and how they lived (review from Third Grade); plan to visit the Cherokee Museum in neighboring state
Talk about the Gullah culture, not detailed, in preparation for our trip; cooking projects!
Between weeks three and four hope to visit the coast which has the first developed city of our state and the barrier islands of our state
Week Four
Talk about first settlers in our state, first developed city; first capital city and how this moved around and how this was shaped by geography; make state flag and draw other state symbols
Talk about Gold Rush and farmers; visit farm preserved from days gone by; we have sifted for gold in the past at different places in the state so we can touch on that
Hang up a map of our state and mark places we have gone on this map; talk about how we are not driven so much anymore by industry in our state but by service and talk about several large local businesses. Hope to visit some of those and finish up with a visit to our State Capitol building that is not far away.
A busy schedule, but at least some general ideas! Hope that helps some of you who are planning. All of this will of course be presented in imaginative story and form and not much emphasis on the horrible and terrible but the general flow of how the geography of our land shaped who settled here and why they settled here and how.
Many blessings,
Carrie
Sometimes it is hard to know what to do with summer and the small child under the age of 7: is it better to keep the Circle Time/Story Time intact and going or to take a complete break? Some mothers decide to stick to one or two seasonal songs and fingerplays and not do a full Circle Time, and to still tell a story a few days a week. They leave the other days open for outings in berry pickings, lake swimming, creek exploring or beach fun.
There is one festival coming up to prepare for, and that is St. John’s Tide. You can read more about summer and that particular festival here: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/07/01/celebrating-summer-with-small-children-a-waldorf-perspective/ and here: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/06/09/midsummers-day-st-johns-tide-day/
To me, this is a very important festival. It is the day in which the sunlight hours begin to actually decrease, and exactly a half year later we celebrate Christmas. The book “Festivals With Children” by Brigitte Barz has many interesting suggestions regarding how to celebrate this special day and its significance. She recommends a festival table set with a picture of St. John with a white lily to the left of the picture and a rose to the right of the picture to represent the beginning , the innocence of man versus the earth, the transformation of man into the future.
This book makes a beautiful comment about the Feast of St. John on page 74-75:
“John the Baptist was the one who prepared the way for Christ. He serves this function still today…”The way in which the inner soul of man is to be prepared is indicated by Luke’s invocation of the prophet Isaiah: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth.” (Luke 3:4f) Mountains and valleys are not only external objects of nature, they are also images of conditions within the soul. We experience them in the life of feelings, as we swing between the heights of jubilant ecstasy to the depths of depression and despair. The task of John is to hold the balance between these two extremes…..Of course, we cannot present the powerful words of John to children, at least not their content. However, we can provide an image for them of the path of inner development, in the form of the lily and the rose.”
Here are some suggestions for stories and songs. Please add your favorites in the comment box!
Summer Stories:
Stories For the Feast of St. John:
(These recommendations come from the book, “The Easter Story Book” by Ineke Verschuren)
Songs for Summer:
Song of the Midsummer Sun found in “All Year Round” – page 106
“Over In The Meadow”
Activities:
The Nature Table:
Beehive with bees and Summer Fairies for St. John’s Tide
For a more regular summer nature display, shells, a sand castle made from starch and wet sand, little boats of bark and twigs, little birds or swans with a pond are all suggested in the book, “The Nature Corner” on page 51, older edition.
Hope that helps you get planning. For those of you wanting to read more, there is a little book entitled simply, “St John’s: An Introductory Reader” by Rudolf Steiner where Matthew Barton has added commentary that may be valuable to you. An important thing for Christians to do would be to attend church and celebrate this wonderful day!
Please take what resonates with you –
Many blessings,
Carrie
The Parenting Passageway 